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predominantly enrolled in community colleges, work while attending school, are first-generationcollege students, are low-income, have less academic preparation than their peers, and areconcentrated in a small number of states and institutions throughout the nation (Santiago &Brown, 2004).The National Center for Education Statistics (1995a) identified the following risk factorsfor students in attaining a college education: delaying enrollment, attending part-time, beingfinancially independent, being a single-parent, working full-time, caring for a dependent,receiving a General Education Development certificate, and being a student who is classified asfirst-generation within the family to attend college. Higher proportions of minorities havemultiple risk factors (NCES, 1995a). Risk factors can become barriers to higher education at alllevels, from the beginning stages of the pipeline to the doctoral or professional degree stage,causing students to drop out.A report commissioned by the Board of Regents for the University of California(Hayward et al., 1997), identified some of the barriers to higher education for historicallyunderrepresented groups. According to the report (Hayward et al., 1997), the barriers included:less access to information, lack of counseling and advisement to take higher level courses,tracking and ability grouping practices, test taking requirements of universities, course-takingpatterns of students, under-prepared teachers at the secondary school level, aspirations orexpectations that are lacking because of reduced numbers of role models, cultural and familypressures to work or marry early in life, and the cost of higher education. The report (Hayward etal., 1997) found that students from groups with low college-going rates get inadequate support athome, in their communities, in their high schools, and from colleges and universities. Whilethese barriers address issues predominantly at the undergraduate level, many of these same